# Heartfelt Beads and Canadian Winter Humidity



## Sft109 (Jan 11, 2011)

Hello all first post here. Been a fan of cigars since vacationing in Cuba in Feb 09 and have gone through some nice boxes of Upmann Magnum 46’s and now partly through a box of Partagas D4 amongst other random sticks here and there. 

Upon returning from Cuba I bought (and seasoned) a 50 cigar humidor and the Madeleine crystal humidifier with the 50/50 solution which I still use. However I found that during summer I am maintaining 65-70% rh just fine but now during winter I am constantly in the 55% range. Temperature is usually warm in my apartment at around 75F but the heated air really kills humidity and hence the drop in rh.

I have been away on vacation and my girlfriend is checking on my humidor and informed me that in 10 days of me leaving or so the rh fell to 48-50% and she then recharged the humidifier and is now stable around 55%. I ordered the small round 65% humidifier beads from heartfelt and the medium 65% tube as well for extra insurance. They should arrive in a week or so to Canada is my guess but wil prolonged exposure at 75F/55% harm the cigars too much? They did feel a little dry before leaving but not really cracked or too damaged so my question is can I just install the new heartfelt beads to get them to 65% or should I use a slow longer process? 

Thanks!!


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## Zfog (Oct 16, 2010)

Well its tough to say. I would recommend putting your sticks in a tupperware that seals tight. Along with your humidification. Too play it safe. The outside humidity will have less affect with the tupperware. 

Although you may have to reseason your humi once your beads finally get there! Your sticks may be ok and it really depends on how long they have been stored at the lower humidity. Tough call. Once you get the beads in though....get a spray bottle and always use that to recharge your beads. That way the salts on them don't get washed away.

It would suck having to reseason your humi, but the sticks would definately be safe if you stuck them in a tupperware until your humi was in the clear and back to normal.


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

I find myself charging mine to about 75% clear in winter. Humidity in my house is about 38%. Almost never in spring, summer, fall.

55% rH is about rock bottom, even for Cubans. 50% is generally assumed to cause death.


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## veteranvmb (Aug 6, 2009)

My humidor room is zero percent humidty, and the h.f. beads would no longer work and couldnt hold the rh past 50 or so. 
I switched back to floral foam and my humis couldnt be happier or myself either. 

Much regards Jerry


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## Sft109 (Jan 11, 2011)

Thaks for the replies. I wont be back home for another couple weeks or so, so I'm getting my girlfriend to look after my humidor. I will ask her to give me feedback on where it's hovering at humidity wise and ask her to recharge the humidifier more often. If it's at around 60% I will probably just replace the crystal gel humidifier with the beads. If it won't get higher than 55% till I come back I'll probably do the whole tupperware and reseasoning. 

Hopefully the beads will be able to maintain humidity at 65% when they arrive. Not sure what the humidity in my apartment during winter is but I'm guessing it's around 20-25%.


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## Zfog (Oct 16, 2010)

The beads will work wonder as long as one thing.....your humi is properly seasoned. Mine were struggling to keep the RH up in one of my humis because it was never seasoned properly. Thus they were fighting to keep the RH at 65 and simultaneously season my humi, it was a losing battle until finally the cedar in my humi was golden then it was at a rock solid 65 ever since!!! Make sure that your humi has a good seal also.



Sft109 said:


> Thaks for the replies. I wont be back home for another couple weeks or so, so I'm getting my girlfriend to look after my humidor. I will ask her to give me feedback on where it's hovering at humidity wise and ask her to recharge the humidifier more often. If it's at around 60% I will probably just replace the crystal gel humidifier with the beads. If it won't get higher than 55% till I come back I'll probably do the whole tupperware and reseasoning.
> 
> Hopefully the beads will be able to maintain humidity at 65% when they arrive. Not sure what the humidity in my apartment during winter is but I'm guessing it's around 20-25%.


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## flyfisher86 (Aug 20, 2010)

I have always had better luck with using a gel humidifier in the winter months. The beads work fine all the other times. Also the smaller the humidor the harder the time it has keeping up with the humidity in the winter.


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## Sft109 (Jan 11, 2011)

Hmm, well im hoping that having both the round bead humidifier as well as sticking in the medium sized tube beads will give it the boost it needs to maintain 65%. Reading your comments I am glad I went with the option of getting more beads than really needed for a humidor of it's size.

I did season the humidor when I bought it and like I said during summer, fall, etc. It maintained 65-70% just fine so I don't think theres a problem with that. Maybe ill season it again just in case. The seal seems good too with a nice woosh and I remember doing the paper test and thinking it was fine back then. I did make the rookie mistake of wiping the inside with a damp cloth when I first seasoned it but it hasn't seem to have done any damage since it works well during normal weather and held up well in the paper test. Only during the very dry winters am I having this low humidity problem.


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## JustOneMoreStick (Sep 21, 2009)

I vote for getting a couple of gel humidifiers to add extra humidity. Also if you need to fix this asap with the least amount of effort on the part of your girl order a few of the bodeva packs probably 69 or 72s and tell her to remove the plastic over-wrap and toss them in.


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## S.P> (Nov 15, 2010)

I've got a pound of the beads in my 400 count humidor. They seem to keep the rh at a pretty consistent rate. I removed the foam from the humidifiers that came with it and placed beads in there and also put some beads in 2 nylon bags that you can buy on the heartfelt website. Overall I am pleased so far. Hopefully you have a good experience with them too.


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## Sft109 (Jan 11, 2011)

Well,I got some bad news. Apparently the thing is hovering around 50% and won't get much higher and the sticks feel dry. So..... my gf one has my cigars in Tupperware with the humidifier, though not fully air sealed to not shock them and will bring them back slowly. She's also recablirating my digital hygrometer with the salt test just to make sure and will now also slowly season the humidor until the beads come using the shot glass method. She's going to be a cigar care expert soon lol. 

What kills me is all this is going on while I am away. Hopefully they are all or mostly salvageable. I should probably invest in a larger humidor to get better circulation and get more beads and have them placed in a spaced out manner. As it is she said the ones on the bottom feel the worst and it's quite tightly packed in there. I'm hoping the round + tube beads I will stick in will fix the problem but it might come down to getting a new humidor. Any suggestions in Canada in case I do have to go ahead and overhaul the whole thing when I get back?


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## havanajohn (Apr 4, 2009)

Are you sure there are enough beads for that sized humidor ?


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## Sft109 (Jan 11, 2011)

It's a 50 count humidor (don't have dimensions with me as I'm away) but barely fits a 25 box of robustos so it's not that big. I assumed I was being safe with the small round humidifier + the medium tube beads. They are each rated for 540 cubic inches and my guess is my humidor is roughly about that size. So I ordered about double what is the recommended minimum for a humidor that size which I hope will be enough.


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